Intervention (Rewritten)
by Nerd 105
Summary: The butterfly effect. The concept that even the smallest and seemingly insignificant of changes can produce a fundamentally different result. It all started with a chance meeting of two tormented souls, and the universe will never be the same. (Yup, i still suck with summary :/)


A/N: Yes, this is the rewrite of my last fic "Intervention". I realized i have screwed it up spectacularly by being indecisive about the nature of the story, so i've decided to tweak the story a little bit to make it more consistent. Unfortunately, the same principle still applies and update will be sporadic and veeeery spaced out. You can consider this a one-shot for now.

Chapter 1:

The M24 Sniper Weapon System, while not boasting any spectacular feature compared to other sniper rifles, was still a formidable weapon with a well-rounded combination of range, accuracy and penetrating power. Fed with 7.62x51mm NATO caliber round, it could retain desired accuracy up to 900 yd. with a 2800 feet-per-second muzzle velocity. The system was specifically designed for rough handling and extended life status, and came with optical sight, suppressor and other accessory. It was probably the most appealing weapon she had founded while raiding the JGSDF base. While she had not been particularly interested in guns, far from it, there was certainly some level of appeal in fighting Witches while staying as far from them as possible. She had been quite excited to use it in battle, completely missing the bemused look sent her way by the blonde veteran Magical Girl.

It was useless in the face of a Witch.  
Witches did not have any exploitable weakness aside from obvious physical manifestation of their power such as wings, limbs or appendages. In fact, she could venture that not unlike with Magical Girls, Witches' body were merely a part of the fabricated reality inside Labyrinths, acting as both a protective shells and a puppet controlled by Grief Seeds – the core of the witches themselves. Thus the only way of defeating a Witch was to obviate its body with overwhelming and continuous firepower and force the Witch to retreat back into the Grief Seed, reverting back to a dormant state to gather grief and hatred. The M24 SWS, while boasting a penetrating power greater than anything that used bullets in her arsenal, simply did not have the required sustained damage to compete with even the unwieldy Desert Eagle. Simply put, it was useless when dealing with Witches.  
However, it still did what it did best – killing human, and the mortal shells of Magical Girls.  
Morbid as it might sound, its long effective range would save her the trouble of using valuable magic on confrontational Magical Girls. While not powerful enough to inflict any significant damage on a Magical Girl's body, it was more than enough to destroy their Soul Gem, especially when they were distracted while or after fighting a Witch. Just a silent bullet, quick and effective. Certainly more efficient than freezing time and finish them with a pointblank Berreta.  
Yet the person her crosshair was resting on was definitely not a Magical Girl. In fact it was not a emgirl/em to begin with. While rare, it was not entirely impossible to find male victims of Witches in possession of enough potential to break out of a Witch Kiss effect, she had yet to see one so calm after waking up in the bizarre fabricated reality of a Labyrinth, let alone being able to defend themselves for so long. It was an interesting happenstance, but not enough to warrant her direct involvement. His death would be inconsequential to her mission, and even if he could somehow defeat the eldritch abomination, he would be weakened enough for her to deal with, hopefully. For now, she would just sit back and gauge his threat level and maybe, just maybe, potential as an ally.  
'Unlikely' Homura snorted. She knew that more often than not she would come off as a 'bad Magical Girl' with her cold and apathetic demeanor, even as she scoffed at the term. The only ally she had made through the time loops was Sakura Kyouko, and the red-headed Magical Girl only joined her for the promise of large quantity of Grief Seeds from Walpurgisnacht. While Sakura was brass and easily manipulated, it was unlikely that she would find any other willing to aid a, in Sakura's words, 'cold and selfish bitch' without worrying about hidden agenda. The man was more likely to stab her in the back once fed with Kyubey's half-truths, and the little rat was bound to rear its head once it caught wind of such an anomaly. Pushing the thought to the back of her mid, Homura resumed observing the fight through the scope of her sniper rifle.  
The man looked to be around twenty with a lean build likely conditioned for speed and agility, but she could never be sure if he was on some level similar to Magical Girls, seeing as Miki was probably the most resilient of them despite her appearance. He was performing impressive acrobatic maneuvers, even by Magical Girls' standards, to avoid the Witch's attacks, all the while attacking with some kind of long sword. Casting her magical sense outward, she was further surprised to find that there was no magic emanating from the man aside from the very faint glow on his sword. In fact, there was not even any ambient magic in the air around him, which made no sense since in using their power, Magical Girls used their life force as fuel for spells and enchantments. The process did not have one hundred percent efficiency so there was always some excess magic radiating from their body. Veterans can push their efficiency very close to perfection, but to completely contain the magic within their bodies was truly an impossible task. Closing her eyes briefly, she focused back on the fight. The massive witch constantly telegraphed its attacks, thus the man had no trouble dodging and cutting off its appendages. It also did not seem to have considerable regeneration power and was now helpless after the man's assault. However, he had yet to finish off the monster, which suggested he either did not have any 'finishing move' or still found value in continuing observing the Witch.  
'Probably the later', she mused. The man seemed experienced enough with fighting that he must have figured out that slashing at the Witch until it succumbed would be a waste of time and effort. If he truly did not have any ace up his sleeves, escaping while the Witch was helpless would be the wise choice. "What are you going to do now?" she whispered.  
As if answering the query, the man jumped back to gain distance from the thrashing monster. Adopting a one-handed sword stance, he did some strange gesture with his free left hand which she could not see clearly due to her position. The glow on the sword was visible now even to the naked eyes, but was still so faint it was almost like a greenish white mist. Without a sound, the man lifted the blade for an overhead slash, and the air ripple like an extended blade, cutting the Witch in half. With a screech of agony, the eldritch abomination dissolved into yellow light, leaving the Grief Seed falling harmlessly onto the ground. The air rippled and the labyrinth faded back into the abandoned construction site. Homura watched silently as the man picked up the Grief Seed, eyeing it for a moment then discarded it before walking away and disappearing around the block. She would have liked to tail the man to his home, or wherever he was residing, but a quick mental check confirmed that it was four in the morning, and she needed some quick rest and prepare for tomorrow. It was regrettable, but she was bound to come across him in the future. Storing the Greif Seed into her shield, Homura disappeared into the night.

Sensing the trace on the strange object he had left behind leaving the area, the man sighed and dispelled the disillusion charm. The air rippled as if a transparent cloth had been pulled down, revealing the man in jeans and jacket made of scaly-looking fabric. The hood was pulled up, leaving only the lower half of his face visible. With a slightly shaking hand, he pulled out a vial from the pouch attached to his bell and downed the brownish red substance, grimacing slightly at the taste. Really, mother Magic had a really bad taste of humor when almost all ingredients with potent rejuvenating property tasted from really bad to downright horrible. Feeling his core stabilizing, the man sighed in relief. The fight was more exhausting that it should have been, but the magical creature was unlike any other he had faced or studied, thus he was compelled to draw out the fight to gauge its nature and power. The Japanese Ministry of Magic Representative had not mention anything about such threat during the meeting at the Embassy, so either it was a recent appearance or they had decided to keep it a secret from the world. To be honest, he really doubted the latter. The Japanese were prideful people, but they were not so arrogant as to keep a threat of such caliber a secret. While the things had shown no sign of intelligence beyond typical predator instinct, its raw strength alone would warrant a small team of Aurors to ensure there would be no casualty. He had just been lucky that the thing had no true long range magical bombardment, and even then his core had been strained. But it was a fair compromise all things considered. He would not want to resort to _that._  
As of right now, he could either contact the Embassy to arrange a meeting in the Ministry and report the incident and request a investigation team, or he could remain in the area and dig for answers himself. The political red tape would be extremely time-consuming though, especially when he did not have any evident to back up his claim. The strange object the thing dropped would have been useful, but there was no point in crying over spilled milk. There was also the possibility that similar abominations were still prowling in the area. The presence watching him might know more about them, maybe even where and how those things came into existence, so it was not for nothing. What to do, what to do?  
Glancing at the side, the man saw not his reflection on the reinforced glass wall of the mall. Instead, there stood a boy staring at him. The dark messy locks, the angry looking lightning bolt shaped scar and the emotionless eyes might be unnerving to most, but he only sighed in resignation.  
"You stubborn bastard."  
Pulling sharply cut stone inscribed with runic symbols, he infused them with magic and guided the formation of the telepathic link. A second later, he felt the other end 'pick up' with a slight vibration.  
"Hermione? I need your help."


End file.
